Athens-Clarke County is a unified city-county in Georgia, U.S., in the northeastern part of the state.

Every spring there are bicycle races collectively known as the Twilight Series. One is the Twilight Criterium. In addition to its yearly weekend of bike events, Athens has a bicycle culture, observed the first Friday of each month at Courteous Mass (sponsored by BikeAthens) and the last Friday of each month at Critical Mass (an independent gathering).

Culture coexists with the university students in creating an art scene, music scene and intellectual environment. The city has music venues, restaurants, bars, and coffee shops that cater to its creative climate.

* The remaining one of two double barreled cannons produced during the American Civil War is located here.

* The "Tree That Owns Itself"-which now is an offspring of the original tree

* The State Botanical Garden of Georgia

* The University of Georgia Campus Arboretum.

* The oldest bar is Allen's (1955).

* The Globe bar was voted by Esquire magazine as the third top bar in America in 2007.[8]

The 1940 film The Green Hand was shot in Athens, using local townspeople and students and faculty from the University of Georgia as its cast. The film had its premiere in Athens in January 1940, in an event attended by Governor Eurith D. Rivers. The movie, Darius Goes West, was shot in Athens.

The short lived 1980–81 ABC-TV television series Breaking Away (based on the 1979 film of the same name) was filmed in and around Athens, and made use of the University buildings, and local stone quarries for filming locations.

The Athens music scene grew in the early 1970s and later during the 1980s with the Georgia Theatre and 40 Watt Club as the bands R.E.M. and the B-52's scored breakout hits. The original Allen's was one of the oldest bars in Athens. It closed in 2004 and re-opened in 2007 at a new location. Other notable bands were Dreams So Real, Indigo Girls, Matthew Sweet, The Method Actors, Love Tractor, Pylon, Flat Duo Jets, The Primates, Modern Skirts, The Whigs, and Widespread Panic.